The gut probably isn’t something most would think of when it comes to spinal cord injuries. However, a recent study indicates that what is happening in a spine injury victim’s gastrointestinal tract might actually have significant implications regarding their ability to recover from their injury.
Spinal cord injuries can have many implications for the various systems in a person’s body. One of the things it can lead to in the gut is dysbiosis. This is a disruption of the bacteria that live in the gut. The study looked at what impacts this disruption has on spinal injury recovery.
The study compared gut bacteria levels and injury recovery progress in mice with spinal cord injuries. Some of the mice were given medications that disrupt gut bacteria before the injury. Also, some of the mice were given regular doses of probiotics after their injury to try to bring their gut bacteria back to a healthy level.
The study confirmed that the bacteria situation in the gut of mice can be greatly altered by spinal cord injuries.
The researchers also found that the mice with high levels of gut bacteria disruption showed poorer progress in their spine injury recovery and more spinal inflammation. Meanwhile, the mice that got the probiotic bacteria showed improved spine injury recovery and lower levels of spinal damage.
This raises questions as to whether spinal injury recovery could be improved in humans through taking efforts to stabilize a victim’s gut bacteria health after the injury. One wonders if this study and ones that stem from it will ultimately lead to workable ways to help promote spinal injury recovery in humans.
Recovery progress is an incredibly important issue for spinal injury victims. How their recovery goes could affect them for the rest of their life. Now, where medical technology and knowledge is when it comes to spinal injuries is not the only thing that can impact the recovery of spinal injury victims. So too can what resources such individuals have to put towards their recovery. Trying to ensure they will have enough resources to get the treatments and support they need for their recovery is one of the big goals that can be behind a spinal cord injury victim pursuing a personal injury claim when they suspect negligence caused their injury.
Source: ScienceDaily, “Gut bacteria can aid recovery from spinal cord injury, study suggests,” Oct. 17, 2016
